Summer Skies

3.5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

I had...I had fooled them, I supposed. This made me feel unusually grim.

Coming from generations of pilots, with a brother who's only into art, Morag felt a certain pressure growing up to fly. Luckily, she loves it, the feeling of her, the plane, and open air. Her life's been go go go, as she co-pilots for a big airline away from home but when an accident happens, she's shaken up and begins to question if a promotion and moving even farther from home is what she really wants from life.

And suddenly nothing else mattered: not my fears, not the job, not my future, not Hayden. Not Gramps, not the airline. Not every stupid problem in my life. Nothing but this---me and Dolly---versus the world, versus the elements.

Summer Skies was a standalone pleasant story to read. The history of Morag's family and why she feels the pressure she does and how her love of flying was formed gave readers a character that they could bond with and understand. Coming into the story after Morag's close call while flying and having to pass psych evals and flight simulation tests, added some tension as we see her passing everything she needs to pass but having her first person pov letting us readers know that she is in fact not emotionally ok. Adding in a blooming romance with a man she meets on the job, Hayden, having for the first time a partner, and then a chance at a promotion, Morag's life is moving in the direction she has planned all out. When she gets called back to her home, her grandfather is sick and they need her to fly their family's Cessna that island hops the archipelago, it leads to her finally getting time to sit still and realize maybe what she planned for in life, isn't what she truly wants.

A place to which I belonged utterly; a place where I could breathe.

The charm of the story really shines when Morag goes back home and we get to meet her family and friends, who with some shenanigans and tough love, help Morag start to heal. When another emergency happens in the air, Morag has to break through her fear and fly, which leaves her landing the plane but getting stuck on a tiny island because of a storm. Having meet the ornithologist who is temporarily staying on the island, and thinking him a grump then, her and Gregor have a less than friendly beginning. I loved their back and forth, especially the dry teasing from Gregor about Morag eating all of his bread he baked for his lunch, and because Morag just recently got a nasty shock about Hayden, it's pretty clear where Gregor and Morag's relationship is going to end up. The second half of the book is Morag forced and gradually learning to slow down, breath, and take the time to think about what she really wants from life as she's stuck on the tiny island for a few days. We get a closer look at Gregor and an eventual reveal about a tragedy he experienced in his own life that has lead to his little more taciturn personality.

This had cuteness with goats and chickens showing their personalities, learning to heal from emotional tragedies, stillness, some romance, and taking the time and courage to decide what you really want out of life; a contemporary fiction story to escape into and feel good after reading.